documentation merge request

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+[[!template id=gitbranch branch=smcv/ready/document-success-reason author="[[smcv]]"
+browse=http://git.pseudorandom.co.uk/smcv/ikiwiki.git/shortlog/refs/heads/ready/document-success-reason]]
+[[!tag patch]]
+
+Whenever I look at dependency calculation, for instance to solve
+[[bugs/editing gitbranch template is really slow]], it takes me a while to
+get my head round the concept of influences. The design documentation is
+in [[todo/dependency_types]], but that takes the form of a long discussion
+between [[Joey]] and [[Will]], so it's difficult to tell which of the
+attempts to define influences were incorrect or have been superseded.
+
+I think it would be valuable to have brief documentation
+as doc-comments in the source code. My branch adds some;
+please confirm whether I got it right? :-)
+
+It would also be great to have a definition of what
+should or shouldn't be counted as an influence, and which influences
+should count as static or dynamic, perhaps analogous to
+[git-annex's design pages](http://git-annex.branchable.com/design/)
+and linked from the `match_foo` section of [[plugins/write]]. I haven't
+written this myself because I'm somewhat stuck on the subtlety of what
+"indirectly influenced" means... --[[smcv]]